Split Ohio Supreme Court says redistricting map is constitutional

The Ohio Supreme Court today upheld legislative maps drawn by the Republican-controlled apportionment board that set boundaries for General Assembly seats for the next decade.

A legislative map drawn in 2011 by the state apportionment board is constitutional, a deeply divided Ohio Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday.

The 4-to-3 court ruling means the once-a-decade drawn map, which currently tilts heavily in favor of Republican candidates who would vie for seats in Ohio's 99 House districts or 33 Senate district, will remain in place.

The map was drawn by the Republican-controlled apportionment board in September 2011.

Democrats sued in January 2012, claiming the map violated Article 11 of Ohio's Constitution, which requires that legislative districts be compact and contiguous and that local units of governments -- such as, counties, townships, cities and villages -- not be split unnecessarily.

Republicans defended the map, saying Democrats were playing politics with the longstanding apportionment board process in order to gain momentum for Issue 2, a constitutional referendum backed by Democrats that would have changed the map-drawing process. Issue 2 was defeated by voters during the Nov. 6 election.

The court's majority, led by Justice Terrence O'Donnell, sided with the Republicans. O'Donnell said for the court to rule in favor of Democrats and impose a drastically different map would have violated a provision of Article 11 which requires the apportionment board to draw a map with district boundaries similar to previously drawn legislative maps.

"This court does not sit as a super apportionment board to determine whether a plan presented by the relators is better than the plan adopted by the board," O'Donnell wrote. "Instead, we determine whether the board acted within the broad discretion conferred upon it by the provisions of Article 11 when it adopted its plan."

O'Donnell was joined by Justices Judith Ann Lanzinger and Robert Cupp and Judge John Willamowski of the Third District Court of Appeals, who replaced Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton for this case.

Justices Paul Pfeifer and Yvette McGee Brown each wrote strongly-worded dissenting opinions. Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor joined both dissenting opinions and voted against the majority.

Pfeifer said the majority opinion reaches conclusions that "fail the tests of logic and fairness." In particular, Pfeifer said O'Donnell's reading of the Article 11 provision giving the apportionment board discretion over drawing a map with boundaries similar to previous maps "erects a nearly insurmountable barrier to a successful constitutional challenge."

Brown also took issue with the majority's assertion that the apportionment board map is valid because of the argument that its boundaries are drawn similar to previous maps, an interpretation that she called "absurd".

"This claim which equates to -- 'because we have already violated the constitution, we can continue to violate the constitution' -- lacks merit," Brown wrote. She said the majority's opinion actually encourages more violations of the constitution because it allows the board to continue drawing districts that may breakup cities or counties into multiple districts, which Article 11 was intended to protect against.

Six of the seven justices are Republicans, with Brown being the lone exception. Ohio Democratic Party chairman Chris Redfern noted that O'Connor sided with Democrats on this issue and called on Gov. John Kasich to help fix what he called a "flawed" system.

"I hope this bipartisan acknowledgement of our flawed districts will encourage the Governor and the Republican legislature to work with Democrats to advance redistricting reform and implementation sooner rather than continue to delay,” Redfern said.

The five-member apportionment board is made up of Republicans Kasich, state Auditor Dave Yost, Secretary of State Jon Husted and Senate President Tom Niehaus and Democratic House minority leader Armond Budish. Aside from Tuesday's court ruling, key elected officials from both parties have agreed that the map-drawing process needs to be revamped and the legislature is considering doing it during the current lame duck session.

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